C(art)ography
Exploring digital cartography as a creative outlet and to gain experience with relevant software.
Blender Shaded Relief Maps
Inspired by folks like Daniel Huffman and Scott Reinhard who are bringing old topo maps to life using digital elevation models.
Rather than creating a hillshade in a GIS program, Blender can be used to create more aesthetically pleasing hillshades. I use ArcGIS Pro for data gathering & reprojection, Blender to create a 3d model of the terrain and simulate a hillshade, and Adobe Photoshop for combining the hillshade with the old topo maps. Still a lot to learn and improve upon, but I enjoy learning new programs and this was a good excuse to get my feet wet in Blender.
Island of Kauai
Hillshade made in Blender:
Final: 
Compare to original image from Ball State University Digital Media library:
Bryn Mawr, PA
An older shaded relief I made for my sister who goes to school in the area. 